This invention relates generally to internal combustion engines, and is particularly directed to a novel turbulence generator apparatus for improving the performance of internal combustion engines for vehicles.
The prior art is replete with measures taken to improve the efficiency of combustion of an air-fuel mixture associated with an internal combustion engine. Such measures have included vortex generating intake valves (to optimize the vaporization and homogeneity of the air-fuel mixture within the combustion chamber), deflection veins mounted in close proximity to valve retaining rings (which deflect the flow of air-fuel mixture to provide a controlled turbulence in a vector tangential to a cylinder chamber or to provide angular momentum in the air as it enters the combustion chamber), shrouded intake valve with openings (to create turbulence in the air-fuel mixture as it enters the combustion chamber), intake port veins provided on the rim of the intake port opening (to create counter rotating swirls for optimizing mixing properties within the combustion chamber), and valve seats with sharp producing edges (for detaching liquid fuel creeping along the walls of the inlet channel).
However, to date, no art has been directed to the introduction of a turbulence generator apparatus comprising a surface texturing associated with flow surfaces adjacent to which an air-fuel mixture flows prior to iginition in an internal combustion engine. The turbulence generator apparatus generally defeats a boundary layer existing adjacent the flow surfaces and generally induces a tumbling, rythmic motion in the air fuel mixture flowing adjacent to the surfaces. Further, the turbulence generator apparatus generally improves the homogeneity of the air-fuel mixture.
In the prior art, a boundary layer which is typically a region of laminar flow, has been considered desirable because the boundary layer was thought to minimize the energy required to transfer the air-fuel mixture to the combustion chamber. It was thought that the introduction of any roughness on the flow surface operated to interrupt the boundary layer and create undesired turbulence. Indeed, classical momentum and mass transfer equations suggest that as the roughness of a conduit increases, the energy required to transfer a fluid over the surface increases. Therefore, the surfaces over which the air-fuel mixture flows in an internal combustion engine have traditionally been made as smooth as possible. Interruptions in the surface smoothness have been provided only to create special effects not typically associated with defeating the boundary layer, such as swirling of air-fuel mixtures entering the combustion chamber.
To date, steps have not been taken to defeat the boundary layer, since to do so has been traditionally viewed as resulting in adverse effects on the efficiency of the internal combustion engine. To the best of applicant's knowledge, no steps or measures have been undertaken to improve the efficiency of a combustion engine by the introduction of a turbulence generator apparatus in the form of a surface texturing on the air-fuel mixture flow surfaces.